Little Baby Goats

I went over to a local farm yesterday and I snapped a few photos of these little baby goats. They are two weeks old and are about only 1 foot tall. 

I am struggling to figure out what my problem is with focus. Upon zooming in, some of my photos appear to be very sharp, however at others it seems the focus is just a tad off. I'm unsure as to whether it is the lens being soft, or whether my focus is just off. I had the focusing on AF-C because of the situation and a d9 (selects any one of 9 blocks around the block of focus picked) which is to help camera shake or just the baby goat changing position. 

The photos were taken with a Nikon D800, with a 55-300mm Nikon 4.5-5.6 DX lens. Not the best combination but it will have to do until I can get a DX zoom. All of these photos were shot at f/8.

If you could help with my problem that would be great, I'll show what I mean in a couple photos below.

This photo appears to be in proper focus when you zoom in to the goats face. 




However this photo, appears to be slightly off-focus.



These are just some more photos of my encounter with these little guys.




As always, I fully appreciate and C & C. Let me know how I could improve, and on what I need to work on. Thanks again everybody

What aperture are you shooting at?  I guess with 4.5-5.5 you can't really go wrong, but I find when I shoot at really low apertures (1.8-2.0), the focus can be relatively good overall, but a bit off when you look close enough

Leilanee wrote: What aperture are you shooting at?  I guess with 4.5-5.5 you can't really go wrong, but I find when I shoot at really low apertures (1.8-2.0), the focus can be relatively good overall, but a bit off when you look close enough

I should have mentioned that. I was shooting at f/8. I forget that when I post on the forums EXIF data is unavailable . 

...and your shutter speed?

Those all look like camera motion blur to me. Not sure why you are using AF-C, but the fact that the background (in the first one) is just as blurry as the goat says that AF-C isn't buying you anything.

I use spot focusing (so I can always pinpoint an eye) and a shutter speed of at least 1/250s. Faster if there's a lot of light, or I crank up the ISO a bit to get my shutter speed where it needs to be. The shot of a seagull in my portfolio here on PT was accomplished using that technique.

As for critique, get down on the ground so you're level with your subject. Wear your grubbies.

I like the first one the most

garyrhook wrote: ...and your shutter speed?

Those all look like camera motion blur to me. Not sure why you are using AF-C, but the fact that the background (in the first one) is just as blurry as the goat says that AF-C isn't buying you anything.

I use spot focusing (so I can always pinpoint an eye) and a shutter speed of at least 1/250s. Faster if there's a lot of light, or I crank up the ISO a bit to get my shutter speed where it needs to be. The shot of a seagull in my portfolio here on PT was accomplished using that technique.

As for critique, get down on the ground so you're level with your subject. Wear your grubbies.

All of those photos were shot around 1/200th up to 1/300th of a second. Which should freeze their action as much as possible. Also, do you shoot AF-C with spot-focusing? I imagine AF-S wouldn't work well because you would have to minutely adjust focus every time the goat flinches. Because of fast shutter speeds I'm not certain what my issue really would be. It could be that my focus was changing at the time, although unlikely. I will give AF-C single spot a go and see how that works out. It could be the problem.

Thanks for the help and critique Gary and JMunoz. I'll take a look at the photo of the seagull in your portfolio as well.

Takennnn wrote: All of those photos were shot around 1/200th up to 1/300th of a second. Which should freeze their action as much as possible. Also, do you shoot AF-C with spot-focusing? I imagine AF-S wouldn't work well because you would have to minutely adjust focus every time the goat flinches. Because of fast shutter speeds I'm not certain what my issue really would be. It could be that my focus was changing at the time, although unlikely. I will give AF-C single spot a go and see how that works out. It could be the problem./quote]

That's not really that fast of a shutter speed. It can be adequate, but quick movement can still be recorded as blur.

I never use AF-C. That's for tracking (i.e. following a moving car or rider). I use AF-A, spot focusing and matrix metering (to read the light level in the entire image). And I will not set my focuse before firing the shutter in situations like this. Here is where you want good technique: find  your focus point (an eye, as I stated, e.g.) and cleanly and quickly press the shutter button while not moving. If you can keep from introducing shake/movement, you can set the camera to compensate for subject movement. And as for technique, I like VR but I don't rely upon it. My Tamron lens doesn't have it so I've had to work on my skills. Turn off VR to force yourself to do that?

As an example, since we're discussing goats: the first image is with LR processing only, to show you what you can get from your camera (our cameras use the same sensor).  1/500s, f/3.2, 75mm, ISO 100:

The second image is with some PS processing to sharpen.

garyrhook wrote:

Takennnn wrote: All of those photos were shot around 1/200th up to 1/300th of a second. Which should freeze their action as much as possible. Also, do you shoot AF-C with spot-focusing? I imagine AF-S wouldn't work well because you would have to minutely adjust focus every time the goat flinches. Because of fast shutter speeds I'm not certain what my issue really would be. It could be that my focus was changing at the time, although unlikely. I will give AF-C single spot a go and see how that works out. It could be the problem./quote]

That's not really that fast of a shutter speed. It can be adequate, but quick movement can still be recorded as blur.

I never use AF-C. That's for tracking (i.e. following a moving car or rider). I use AF-A, spot focusing and matrix metering (to read the light level in the entire image). And I will not set my focuse before firing the shutter in situations like this. Here is where you want good technique: find  your focus point (an eye, as I stated, e.g.) and cleanly and quickly press the shutter button while not moving. If you can keep from introducing shake/movement, you can set the camera to compensate for subject movement. And as for technique, I like VR but I don't rely upon it. My Tamron lens doesn't have it so I've had to work on my skills. Turn off VR to force yourself to do that?

As an example, since we're discussing goats: the first image is with LR processing only, to show you what you can get from your camera (our cameras use the same sensor).  1/500s, f/3.2, 75mm, ISO 100:

The second image is with some PS processing to sharpen.

Upon doing some more research into AF-A and AF-C. The D800 classes AF-A under AF-C, so I was mistaken when I mentioned AF-C I was actually using one of the many modes the D800 has to offer for AF-A. I'll try to bring up my shutter speeds the next time I try to take photos such as this. When I look at the EXIF data, It looks like I was shooting at ISO of 100... which is lower than my typical ISO by an entire stop. Right now I'll crack my focusing problems up to be exactly what you mentioned, camera blur from one of a few things. I'll see what happens next time I run into a situation like this. I'll be in touch if I continue to run into problems. Thanks Gary!


A bit off topic, but can I ask how you do the photoshop processing to selectively sharpen the image?

Oh, dang, I got confused on who has which camera. Ignore the remark about the same sensors. Your D3200 has more MP than my D5100. And of course you are using a D800. I knew that.

Re: ISO. I know it's not fashionable, but ISO is usually the last thing I worry about. I set my aperture and consider my shutter speed first, then modfiy ISO to suit. This comes after a lot of practice in various situations to know what aperture I prefer, and what shutter speed will be required to get what I want. In bright daylight I'm usualy at 100 and a ridiculously short shutter, since I prefer to shoot with a wide aperture.

Sharpening: I sharpen irises in LR to push exposure, clarity saturation and sharpness. I also try to even them out somewhat if one is shadowed, or darker, than the other.  If I have an obvious double catchlight on a serious image I will remove one of them in PS.

In PS I am currently using Topaz Labs Clarity and Detail, but I think that image used high-pass filter sharpening, which is, IMO, a great technique. I like it much better than anything else I've found (until Detail).  I I sharpen on a separate layer and use mask to enable the sharpened parts where I want them.  Here, it would be the entire goat's head and neck. For humans it's usually just eyes/eyelashes and lips/teeth.

If you get onto the Topaz Labs mailing list, they usually run a 50% off special (on just one of their plugins) every month or every other month. I picked up Detail for $15 this way. Very glad I did; it's quite nice.

garyrhook wrote: Oh, dang, I got confused on who has which camera. Ignore the remark about the same sensors. Your D3200 has more MP than my D5100. And of course you are using a D800. I knew that.

Re: ISO. I know it's not fashionable, but ISO is usually the last thing I worry about. I set my aperture and consider my shutter speed first, then modfiy ISO to suit. This comes after a lot of practice in various situations to know what aperture I prefer, and what shutter speed will be required to get what I want. In bright daylight I'm usualy at 100 and a ridiculously short shutter, since I prefer to shoot with a wide aperture.

Sharpening: I sharpen irises in LR to push exposure, clarity saturation and sharpness. I also try to even them out somewhat if one is shadowed, or darker, than the other.  If I have an obvious double catchlight on a serious image I will remove one of them in PS.

In PS I am currently using Topaz Labs Clarity and Detail, but I think that image used high-pass filter sharpening, which is, IMO, a great technique. I like it much better than anything else I've found (until Detail).  I I sharpen on a separate layer and use mask to enable the sharpened parts where I want them.  Here, it would be the entire goat's head and neck. For humans it's usually just eyes/eyelashes and lips/teeth.

If you get onto the Topaz Labs mailing list, they usually run a 50% off special (on just one of their plugins) every month or every other month. I picked up Detail for $15 this way. Very glad I did; it's quite nice.

Sounds good Gary, I'll give masks with PS a go. I Finally caved in and bought PS and just yesterday found a wacom intuos tablet to be able to maximize my photoshop experience. I have one of Topaz Labs products. I forget what it is called, but it is the one with all the many colour palettes. My typical workflow consists of beginning in LR and then moving into PS when I need to do further editing. I need to figure out masks a bit more, and learn dodging & burning. 

Thanks for the tips Gary. 

I believe my lens is a soft copy or it is unable to produce sharp results at a 300mm focal range. That is the one thing that is in common between my shots today, and my shots of the baby goats. I was shooting very fast, 1/500th and faster today and I still ran into focus problems. 

This photo is another example of the focusing issue. I set my settings onto AF-A Single spot mode and focused it on the duck (as you normally would) and this was the result, this is not the only time that this happens, this happened with about 10-15 shots of this same duck.

I'm concluding this by also doing more research into the lens itself, the nikon 55-300mm DX 4.5/5.6 lens. Its a good quality lens, however I have seen problems like the one I am having. I am going to do what some articles suggested. Turn off VR and use live view. Maybe this might help solve some of the problems I am having.  

Interesting thread. What can I add, everything is already here! Nice job guys. You are really all helpful people. Keep it up and keep posting. I am also learning a lot from all of you.

I got out for round two, I was able to shoot at a much faster shutter speed, and I didn't need to bump ISO. I like how it turned out, and hopefully I've gotten a better photo from what everyone has mentioned to get it better. 

Here's my result:

Camera	Nikon Corporation Nikon D800
Lens
Focal	300 mm
Shutter	1/6400 sec
Aperture	f/5.6
ISO	400

Nice set, I like what you've done.